Melbourne Storm will look to continue their impressive start to the season when they host Canterbury Bulldogs in the grand final rematch. Join us for live scores and commentary from 8.00pm AEDT.

It’s only round two but Melbourne has already provided firm indications that it will yet again be the team to beat this season after an outstanding performance against the North Queensland Cowboys away from home.

The Storm were clinical last week en route to a 32-10 victory against a Cowboys side that ranks as a severe premiership contender this year.

Melbourne now faces a Bulldogs outfit that was forced to grind its way to a 20-16 victory against the Parramatta Eels last week.

Canterbury was forced to do the majority of defending against the Eels, but managed to hold on for their first win of the season.

Despite denying Parramatta with good defence, the Storm are an infinitely better attacking unit and may just put an under strength Canterbury to the sword tonight.

Prediction

Bulldogs stars Sam Kasiano, Ben Barba, Frank Pritchard and James Graham remain sidelined and their presence will be sorely missed tonight by Canterbury.

Full strength opposition struggle to beat Melbourne at the best of times, so it’s very difficult to see how the Bulldogs will match the Storm’s firepower with all that class still sitting on the sidelines.

The Canterbury forward pack is going to have to play very well. Tony Williams in particular must stand up and make his presence felt after two flat performances for the Bulldogs.

Bulldogs halves Kris Keating and Josh Reynolds are also going to have to produce something special in attack if they are to open up a Storm defence that is known for absorbing a lot of pressure.

Melbourne’s halves on the other hand are by far the most clinical attacking pair in the NRL, with Cooper Cronk and Gareth Widdop now seemingly opening up teams at will.

Cronk is playing superb football at the moment, scoring two tries last week while having a hand in three others in the victory against the Cowboys.

If Melbourne’s forwards continue to do their job upfront tonight, the Storm quartet of Billy Slater, Cameron Smith, Cronk and Widdop should once again prove too much to handle for the Bulldogs.

He actually got him in the throat and be it a pro-active means of deflection or an aggressive strike on an opposing player, he did extend the leg towards an advancing player striking him with the soul of his foot prior to any contact made by the advancing player. It is not a good look for the game.
However the rest of the game fantastic, crowd of just shy of 12,000 would be a little disappointing though I would have thought particularly as AFL main season has not started yet.

Cam Smith had a legit argument about the incident as well. If he never wentup for the tackle, then Slater’s foot would have never got him. Then it led to a try. Pathetic refereeing. That try that Cronk also “scored” and disallowed for obstruction was utter bull! I’m over these pathetic rule changes.

Back to Slater though. He does and has done the exact same thing every single game. Not exactly his fault!

You are kidding right?..why don’t you watch the replay again and again, where in the footage do you see Klemmer getting anywhere near Slater?..how long is Slater’s leg?..at least a metre in length? fully extended, how the hell can Klemmer even get close to him?..Just because everybody would love to think that Klemmer was running in to tackle, the more likely scenario would have been Klemmer was waiting for Slater to land then tackle him, why would anybody think differently?..what next? you’re gonna say Klemmer should have been charged for using his face to strike Slater’s boot?..

Full disclosure, I am a Dogs supporter so hopefully this doesn’t sound too bias.

Slater’s foot made contact with Kelmmer’s throat. There is no way to show that Klemmer would have made the tackle while Slater was in the air. He was more than likely going to be waiting until Slater lands to complete the tackle. Admittedly, there is no way to show this either. So it all comes back to Slater’s foot making contact with Klemmer’s throat.

I would hope (although I sometimes am a bit sceptical about ‘accidental’ contact made by some Melbourne players) that Slater didn’t do this intentionally, however it was reckless. To those who say he was just protecting himself from illegal contact he thought was going occur, I will give you another scenarion. How would it be any different if Klemmer a couple of minutes later, Klemmer were to take a hit up and, under the impression that he was going to be hit high, raise an elbow and make contact with a defender’s head?

I thought before the game the Storm might show signs of fatigue. They certainly were caught napping at the end. While the Dogs will be happy to get so close with key players out, I’m sure Des would still be bitterly disappointed.

It was the perfect night to meet the Storm. But all in all a great game by 2 premiership heavyweights.

Some game! Bulldogs will be a force to be reckoned with when they get some key troops back.

Shame about that obstruction ruling on the Cronk try though, that was pretty rubbish.

And after some talk during the week about switching the clock off in dead ball situations, those last 30 seconds should definitely fuel the discussion, would have been great to see the Doggies have one more crack.

The Bulldogs have produced a mighty effort tonight and fell just short in the end against Melbourne. The Storm threatened to run away with the contest when they led 22-6 but the Bulldogs hit back with two quick tries of their own and nearly pulled off a great upset victory in the process. Inu was superb for the Bulldogs as was Eastwood and the rest of the Dogs pack. Hasler will be very proud of his troops tonight. The Storm did just enough in the end in attack to win this with Cronk once again playing a leading role with two try assists. Storm though will know they got away with one there. Great contest overall. Thanks for your company tonight and join us for Friday night football tomorrow!